Sandra Autman, deputy New Castle County prothonotary, says she and several other hysterical staff are holed up in their mezzanine office, one level below the lobby. She said employees heard at least five shots and reports that the gunman came into the lobby shooting.
She said employees reported to her that at least one person was shot.
At least 30 police cars in the area, and streets are cordoned off for several blocks around the courthouse.
Police have closed King Street at Ninth.

Reports are that 5 people were shot, including two guards. This happened in the lobby area, so I suppose before or as you are going through the security checkpoint, which explains that part of it (i.e. how the hell did he get a gun into the courthouse to begin with).

I did my jury duty a few weeks ago and the lobby area is not secure. People go through metal detectors and security one court opens at 8:30. No police in the lobby area itself. Perhaps security needs to be in the “lobby” area until court and security is open. So no doubt we’ll see security in the lobby area now. Also, it sucks going into Wilmington for jury duty.

Surely he knew he was on a suicide mission! Hopefully those scheduled to serve jury duty gets their three year certificate and not asked to comeback another day! If I were scheduled to go tomorrow I guess I would.

Ferris Wharton, a public defender and former chief deputy attorney general, said an employee of his office reported that he saw a woman who appeared to be dead in the lobby. The employee also saw bullet holes in the window by the revolving door of courthouse that is adjacent to the parking garage. Shell casings littered the ground, the employee said, according to Wharton.
“I don’t know what to say,’’ said Wharton, who has worked in the Wilmington courthouses for three decades. “I’ve never heard of anything like this happening in Delaware. It’s a wild situation.’’

Conflicting reports. Do we have two people dead, this woman and the shooter?

In LaPierre’s world, the bad guy gets to have as many weapons as he wants with no background checks and he gets to kill as many as possible with his military style assault weapons before the good guy can even react.

You can’t express sorrow or grief if “Guns for everyone, everywhere” is your motto. Shootings like this are simply a way of life for this group. Dead children and adults are merely collateral damage… they died in the name of Freedom.

No, Cassandra, he was a wanton criminal who kidnapped his three children and took out of the country for a year, had them living in squalor, and served a year in prison for his crime. As a felon, he should have been denied access to firearms forever. And yet, here we are.

Surely, the armed guards should have prevented this shooting. Just as armed principals and janitors will prevent casualties in future school shootings.

Sarcasm, yes.

I am deeply saddened for those who were injured or lost their lives today along with their grieving families. I feel tremendous hurt for the children involved and the legacy their father has beget them.

The gun culture is killing us and arming the good guys is not enough to save us.

Sgt. Paul Shavack said in current press briefing that the shooter is between 50 and 60 years old, but multiple sources are identifying him as Matusiewicz, who is 44 or 45 years old. Few details from Shavack, but that’s understandable. I have no reason to doubt the news reports, but I hope we have not accused the wrong person.

According to the NRA, only good honest (white) people even TRY to buy guns. It is OH SO restrictive to get guns these days, anyone who has ever even missed a couple days of church are usually denied one. Must have been a very big fluke indeed that this person, who CLEARLY should not have been allowed to own a fire arm, was able to get one.

Damn, I used to work at that courthouse. It’s terrible that it happened, but I only surprised it didn’t happen before. Many courts of different jurisdictions packed into the same building. That puts many people in the lobby, all potential shooting victims.

Women lie. They lie on protective order requests. Their lies cannot be disproved in a Court. They lie to get immigration benefits, child support, alimony, sympathy….anything they want, they are prepared to lie for.

Those processes are secretly filed to US State and Federal Govt. Men suffer. Their reputations are ruined. They cling on to their kids who need a good role model. They give up. Oftentimes they lose everything.

It sounds like VOF has a personal situation that informs his opinion, and thus he generalizes it out to all women, and generally exculpates all men. As a man, I can tell you that some men are bastards, who beat their children and their wives, but that does not mean all men are abusive assholes.

And even if the ex-wife who was a victim today was a liar who lied about Mr. Matusiewicz, that in no way justifies her cold blooded murder.

That Victim of Fraud would justify it speaks volumes about him. Indeed it sounds like he could shoot up a courthouse at any moment. Perhaps I will report his details to the police.

“Before VoF derails the thread, back to the main topic. If it weren’t for the NRA, all these people would be alive today.”

Prove it.

I’m sitting here laughing because I know you can’t. Facts and reality are a foreign concept to you. Why don’t you go write a post telling people to kill NRA members and target their families again Kavips?

And do you have any evidence that the killer today (the father of the optometrist) was anything other than the fine upstanding citizen that the NRA is telling us should be armed to protect us from the bad guys?

The important phrase of LaPierre’s solution, is “with a gun.” Of course.. LaPierre knows, a man ‘without a gun,’ can’t shoot innocent people. (SShhh..There’s no money in that; it doesn’t sell guns and ammo.) So men, buy Gunangra. (If you still feeling powerless after 4 hours, buy more powerful Gunangra and larger clips. Then start practice shooting… feel the power, the rush. Man and Gunangra become one. You’re complete, tough, potent, strong, a straight shooter. Slip it in your pocket, your car; bring it along anytime, anywhere, until you know the time is right for your Gunangra moment. Have it your way with Gunangra.

Republican gun special interests are counting their million$, billion$, laughing the rich man laugh and saying, Americans sure am dumb. The dumber men gets, the richer republican gun special interests gets. (No wonder republicans banished the use of CDC gun violence studies and funding… to promote stupid. Republicans like stupid. It’s easier to separate stupid from their money.

Here some flaming stupid for ya:

“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy “with a gun” Damn that LaPierre sure knows how to sell guns and promote violence. So he doesn’t mention the real issue. We’re talking about the sneaky, cowardly, Gunangra toting idiots, who have no intention of giving any man, woman or child a split second’s notice. LaPierre knows, no good or bad guys with a gun, is going to show up and say, whoo hoo, look over here. See my gun. Now everybody get ready. Are you ready yet? Good guys, where are yaaa. Whoo hoo .

A good guy with a gun IS NO DIFFERENT than a bad guy with a gun – the INSTANT either one decides to shoot innocent people. And that INSTANT can happen at any INSTANT, any time or place. After that INSTANT, there are only dead people. Lawmakers must deal with everything that leads up to that INSTANT. “Good” is an unstable BULLSHIT variable, a value that can change within the split second, when he decides he’s going to settle things for once and for all.

This won’t work: Men with guns, more men get guns, more men get more guns because more men got more guns because more men with more guns got more guns because more men got guns……….Can’t you see the problem there? MORE INSTANCES, more instances of corruption of what someone, somewhere, thought was a “good” man who wants a gun.

The person going under the moniker “Victim of Fraud” is so vile that to read his comments is to be exposed to a teeming intellectual bacterial cesspool. I wish the writers of Delaware Liberal will consider blocking him and, thereby, show concern for the nausea that VOF’s words evoke.

Thankfully Delaware courts use the best-interest-of-the-child standard. It’s true some idiotic judges are still biased (against both men and women), but they’re getting few and far between as the years go on.

These “Fathers’ Rights” groups, I believe, are – generally speaking – just an outlet for manly men who just got their balls cut off in court to rant and rave and swing their cocks around and talk about how tough they are.

VoF is obviously an ass. I will however say that I had a friend that had his estranged wife file for a PFA on the flimsiest of excuses. The result was actually a serious disruption for him since he was not permitted to communicate with his teenaged children, retrieve belongings from his home, gain access to his car and since he and his wife worked at the same place there were issues there.

It took 2.5 weeks to get a court date where the judge threw the whole thing out because it was such a farce.

The thing that I was most pissed about was that she had used a law designed to protect women from truly dangerous men as a tool of aggression. The end result of that was that it makes people think that women that file for a PFA may be scamming the system to hurt someone.

“And do you have any evidence that the killer today (the father of the optometrist) was anything other than the fine upstanding citizen that the NRA is telling us should be armed to protect us from the bad guys?”

False argument and you know it. (I would hope you know it)

No. I don’t know, and neither do you, so why even ask the question? Are you a fine upstanding citizen, or are you a violent felon? The only thing we have to go off of is past history. If you’re not disqualified because of that past history you could buy a gun tomorrow. It is your right.

“Telling us should be armed to protect us from the bad guys” and “has not been found to be a prohibited person through due process, therefore retains his individual right to purchase a firearm” are two different things.

I wouldn’t call for you to be gagged or have your tongue cut out because you might slander someone, even if I had some reason to believe you might do so. Sadly I realize that this position puts me in the minority among the DE Liberal crowd, who do not share the same respect for the Bill of Rights.

In other words, you got nothing. And you didn’t even apologize for being so wrong. Because this shooter certainly does look like one of your good guys with a gun — until, of course he started shooting up the courthouse.

Here’s a hint — if you can’t answer an argument, then STFU. I’m not kidding that you are on a very short leash here and you will not hijack threads because you have no idea how to participate in a normal conversation.

So stick to fondling whatever passes for a weapon for you or figure out how to be here in a more congenial way.

When I worked at Family Court, I had a variety of jobs. Some involved working with those who had been convicted of crimes and others involving disputes about custody, visitation, and child support. By far, the most hostile and frightening litigants were those fighting over custody, visitation, and child support. Something very primal gets triggered with people regarding disputes about their children. One way the court can reduce incidents like this is to assign litigants different arrival times even though they have the same Court hearing times.

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